SEARCH BY TOPIC

Eurovision-By-Numbers: Winning Languages

Eurovision and Quizzes go hand in hand – or so it seems more and more these days, with the contest been mentioned in various television quiz shows and pub quizzes. For those of you travelling to Stockholm for Eurovision next month, it’s time to swat up on some fun facts as there is usually a quiz or two at the Eurovision Fan Café each year. However, if you’re not attending, it’s a great way to build up your knowledge.

Winning Languages

In this edition, we will look at which languages have been the most successful in winning our favourite contest. It is important to remember that countries haven’t always been free to sing in whichever language they feel like – between 1966 to 1973 and then 1977 to 1998, all entries had to be sung in a language from that participating nation. Let’s see the winning languages from most successful, to the least.

English – 30 Times

It will be a surprise to nobody that English is the winning language on 30 separate occasions. In fact, since the free language rule was reintroduced, the contest has been won every year by an English entry apart from 2004 (Ukrainian) and 2007 (Serbian).

French – 14 Times

French entries have won the contest 14 times – half of that of English entries. Winning entries sung in French appeared mainly in the early years of the contest and the most recent was back in 1988 when Celine Dion represented Switzerland.

Dutch & Hebrew – 3 Times

In terms on winning languages, we take a big leap in terms of three winners in Dutch and three in Hebrew. The last time we saw a Dutch winner was back in 1969 and Hebrew was last seen in a winning entry back in 1998.

Italian, German, Spanish, Swedish & Norwegian – 2 Times

A further five languages have managed to achieve victory on two occasions each. Italian was the first of the languages to take victory back in 1964, while Norwegian was the last in 1995.

Danish, Serbo-Croatian, Ukrainian & Serbian – 1 Time

A further four languages have taken victory on one occasion. These were Danish in 1963, Serbo-Croatian in 1989, Ukrainian in 2004 and finally Serbian in 2007. The winning entries from 2004 and 2007 are the occasions since the free language rule returned in 1999, that a non-English entry has taken victory.

Why do you think English seems to be the winning language year in, year out? Would you like to see a return of the language rule? Please leave a comment below.